For a long time, fingerprint and palm print constituted by numerous ridges of curved stripes have been utilized as person identification means. Particularly, collation using a latent fingerprint left in a crime scene is used as effective investigation means. Many police agencies have implemented fingerprint matching systems using computers. By comparing the characteristics of fingerprint images registered in a database with those of a fingerprint left and taken in a crime scene, a person corresponding to the fingerprint can be identified. Further, endpoints and bifurcation points of fingerprint ridges are often used as the characteristics used in fingerprint matching.
Patent Literature 1 states that it provides a configuration capable of accurately extracting and removing pileous glands and sweat gland pores by extracting the characteristics of pileous glands, analyzing the appearance patterns thereof, and judging the pileous glands by means of a predetermined conditional expression.
Patent Literature 2 states that it provides a method and apparatus capable of performing various kinds of spatial conversion processing such as image deformation, linear spatial filtering, and luminance distribution correction without increasing the number of parameters or the processing load. Further, Patent Literature 2 also describes image processing for LBP (Local Binary Pattern) images and edge extracted images, in addition to luminance images.